The manner of England’s dramatic win over Slovakia on Sunday did nothing to quell the criticism of Gary Neville, who labelled their performances at Euro 2024 thus far as ‘woeful’.
Gareth Southgate’s side were saved from the embarrassment of a last-16 exit in Gelsenkirchen by Jude Bellingham’s stunning bicycle kick in the 95th-minute before Harry Kane scored the winner within seconds of the start of extra-time.
Despite victory ensuring the side are still on to claim the country’s maiden European crown, Neville was not caught up in the emotion and suggested Southgate had been fortunate to escape a defeat that would almost certainly have ended his reign as England boss.
‘England have been woeful for four games,’ he said on ITV post-match. ‘We all know [Southgate] in the studio. He’s a great guy — he’s got massive integrity obviously but he will realise tonight that he was so close to the edge. Very close to the edge.’
He added: ‘Sweet Caroline doesn’t sound very sweet. Relief is the word of the day. We’ve been very, very lucky and we should thank our lucky stars because we were woeful and we’ve been woeful now for four games.
Gary Neville suggested that Gareth Southgate was lucky and insisted England have been ‘woeful’ in their four Euro 2024 outings
Harry Kane scored the winner in the first minute of extra time to complete England’s dramatic comeback
‘Not even in extra time did we play well and Slovakia were unlucky at the end. We’ve got to change something dramatically and Gareth will realise tonight that he was so close to the edge.’
England fell behind against Slovakia, who took a deserved lead through Ivan Schranz.
Jude Bellingham levelled with a superb overhead kick late in normal time before Harry Kane scored the winner early in extra-time.
Many of England’s performances at Euro 2024 so far have been underwhelming but they are through to the last eight, where they will take on Switzerland.
Neville’s assessment was shared by his fellow ITV pundit Ian Wright, who admitted that it is very difficult to feel confident about the side moving forward.
‘It’s very difficult to look at England and feel confident going forward,” said Wright. ‘But we’ve just shown that we’ve got two players that are capable of putting out fires.’
There were furious scenes at the full-time whistle, with footage showing Slovakia manager Francesco Calzona pushing England midfielder Declan Rice away.
Rice was left livid by the incident and had to be held back by team-mates Ivan Toney and Ezri Konsa.
There were furious scenes at the full-time whistle, with footage showing Slovakia manager Francesco Calzona pushing Declan Rice (left)
Rice called Calzona a ‘bald c***’ at the end of the game.
As revealed by lipreader Jeremy Freeman, a furious Rice said: ‘Shut up, p***y, oi, shut up, you bald c***.’
